Google+ first launched in June 2011 and has been growing steadily ever since. Some have predicted that it may dethrone Facebook, while it is too early to predict such a thing, no one can deny that it is set to be a powerful player in social media, especially when you take into account this week’s Search Plus Your World updates. So why should you be taking advantage of Google+

Circles

Google+ allows you to organize friends and people you know into different circles such as friends, acquaintances, colleagues, business contacts and so on. You can then select which groups to share information with, allowing for greater privacy but it is also great for businesses as you can use the circles to identify demographics and target marketing towards different circles.

Hangouts

Hangouts are video chat groups that allows you to talk to up to 10 friends at once. The video chat feature provides a great way to talk to prospective clients and discuss ideas. It also presents an ideal way to resolve customer conflicts, adding a personal touch to your business. Group video chat means that you could hold a competition to promote yourself and then those who enter can learn about a tool or design process that you have used.

Sparks

Sparks is great if you have a blog because Sparks looks for trending content found elsewhere on the Web, so it is really useful when it comes to finding inspiration for a blog post, commenting on news and even for monitoring content on the Web about your own site. Sparks allows you to see who refers back to you and any other mentions that you may have.

It also allows users to suggest news, stories, videos, photos and more to specific users or circles rather than automatically posting to everyone and as mentioned before this allows you to tailor what content you publish to specific users.

Google indexes Google Plus posts

Google indexes Google Plus posts but doesn’t index Facebook or Twitter posts which means if your Google Plus posts are SEO friendly and have good content then it is possible for your Google Plus posts and pages to show up in search results. As not many people have yet adopted Google Plus, you should take advantage of this opportunity to get an edge over your competitors. So in your Google Plus posts make sure that you are including links to your website, use keywords associated with your business in your content and engage your audience in social media.

Search Plus Your World

With the update this week of Google’s Search Plus Your World, Google now finds both content that has been shared privately along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings. This is great for people who want to find privately shared content from family and friends plus material from across the web. This could be great for graphic designers because if someone searched for graphic design/graphic designer and someone has mentioned you or your services in a post then this will show up in the results too.

While you shouldn’t drop Facebook or Twitter for Google Plus you should, in light of the recent changes, up your game and become an adopter of Google Plus, as it is not as far behind Facebook as you think, hitting 150 million active users at the turn of the new year.